Embracing The Calling
by Okapi
Summary: A litte season 2 rewrite on my part, picking up with a slightly reworked ending of A Perfect Storm episode  hope you read & enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

The steady beat of the rain pounded against the window of the morgue reception with such intensity that Tru Davies could almost swear it was battering against her head. As another nauseous wave of pain flooded her mind, she resolved to massage her temples in an effort to disperse the discomfort. Everything seemed strangely empty to her that particular evening as she recounted the life she had saved. A young lifeguard who had almost died for a second time due to Jack Harper's lies was recovering from the intense cold of the waters she had been helplessly adrift in. A girl had been given a second chance at life thanks to Tru's actions, yet she could not feel any satisfaction at this. She was abruptly snapped out of her deep musings when a mug of hot chocolate was held in front of her face. As she looked up, she was comforted to see the bearded form of her close friend, Davis, standing in front of her. With a weak smile of gratitude, she took the mug from his hand as if the warmth being emitted could somehow ease the desolate chill working its way through her heart.

"Thought you might need something to warm you up, at least until you get home and changed out of those clothes," Davis ventured in an attempt to break the uneasy silence which had descended between them. He had seen Tru upset before after attempting to save a person's life, but this was the first occasion where she had been successful yet completely morose about it.

"This is great, thanks Davis," Tru murmured softly before taking a drink from the steaming hot mug. She stared into the swirling brown depths for a few minutes longer, allowing the heat to flood through her system, before she finally felt strength flow through her enough to give voice to the turmoil racking through her heart.

"I saved her, Davis, I beat Jack this time," her voice was so loud compared to its previous delicate whisper that Davis visibly flinched, "but why doesn't it feel like enough?" There was no anger or bitterness in her tone as she said these words, but an emptiness which neither her nor Davis were accustomed to hearing. Unsure how to reassure her, Davis sat down beside Tru on the overstuffed mahogany sofa while he gathered his thoughts.

"It's because it wasn't Luc, part of you will always feel your efforts aren't enough because you couldn't save the person you loved. But, Tru, you must understand that what you're doing is more than enough. Kate Wilson has been given a second chance at life to carry on whatever great deed she is destined to do in this world because of you. As long as you continue to fight Jack, as long as you do your best to help those who ask you, that will always be enough," his reply provoked a surge of affection deep within Tru's heart. It touched her on many occasions to know that she wasn't facing her calling alone in the world; she would never face it alone as long as she had Davis and Harrison by her side. The small smile which appeared on her pain-stricken face let her close friend know that his words were a great comfort to her.

"So, any news on getting a new pick-up driver?" she asked after a few moments, "I'm not exactly loving doing the pick-ups by myself, especially considering it's always on the graveyard shift!!" Davis couldn't keep an amused smile from his face at this remark; he knew how much Tru hated going to collect the bodies that they had to tag and log upon arrival at the morgue. The pair of them had been alternating between shifts at performing this macabre yet essential task since Jack had been marked off the books.

"Actually, I do have an update on that. It's been a tough few weeks getting anyone to reply to the advert for that post, but I've finally got a few people lined up for interviews in the next couple of weeks. I'm feeling uncharacteristically hopeful that soon, we'll have a new pick-up driver," Tru couldn't help but roll her eyes at the sarcasm in Davis' response to her question. After draining the remainder of her hot chocolate, she forced her exhausted body and strained muscles to stand up, making an attempt at stretching out some of the tension residing there from her busy evening.

"Sarcasm and you really don't go well together, Davis. I'm heading home for a good night's sleep, make sure to keep me updated on how the interviews go," as she said this, Tru crossed the empty morgue and stopped just short of the exit as an afterthought before shouting back, "How did your interview with the psychiatrist go, by the way?" Davis merely ducked his head down in an attempt to hide the blush rapidly colouring his face.

"It went well, actually Carrie and I are going for coffee next week," his reply was so soft that Tru thought she'd misheard initially. It was only when she saw the blush grow deeper on his face that she knew he had said those words. Chuckling to herself, she turned once more and headed out of the morgue on her way home.

Mondays were always the worst day of the week for Tru. As she rushed into her first class of the day which she was ten minutes late for, her professor shot her a look which left her in no doubt she'd have to face his wrath after the lecture was finished. Lowering her eyes until she got into her seat, her mood lightened considerably when she saw the new group of friends she had slowly started getting to know since starting medical school: they consisted of a beautiful golden-haired girl called Avery Bishop, a young dark-haired guy called Tyler Li and a guy with long blond hair called Jensen. She wasn't sure whether that was his first name or surname, but he was a friendly guy so she was not concerned by this.

"Hey Tru, rough weekend?" Avery queried light-heartedly. Shooting her a mock glare, Tru merely rolled her eyes before focussing her full attention on the professor. To say she had a rough weekend was an understatement. The previous day, Davis had finally brought in the person who would be the new pick-up driver at the morgue. Tru could not hide the surprise from her face when it turned out to be no other than Kate Wilson, the lifeguard she had rescued only three weeks prior to that day. It had only been a brief introduction with Davis giving Kate her induction in the morgue with her first proper shift starting that night. Tru could barely concentrate on her class for worrying about the night-shift looming. Although she had rescued many people over the course of the past year since learning about her gift, she had never had close contact with anyone of them who did not know about her ability afterwards. Needless to say, it was going to be a long day for her.

That evening, she arrived at the morgue ready for her shift to be greeted by the brunette she could not stop thinking about all day. From where she was standing, Kate was a bit unsettled about starting a new job with the strange girl who had stalked her continuously only three weeks ago.

"Hey, excited about your first shift tagging some people to come in here?" Tru ventured in an attempt to break the awkward silence which had descended. Kate did not acknowledge that she had heard Tru until she sat on the overstuffed couch facing her, at which point she raised her head to give the other girl an icy glare.

"Yeah, I'm real excited about working in a place with the crazy girl who followed my every movement, while saying that something bad was gonna happen to me," her verbal reply was as venomous as the look in her eyes, "next thing I know, you're out in the middle of a white squall, saving me. Part of me is grateful to you for that, but also part of me wonders how you knew so much about what was going to happen that day. If you'll excuse me, I need to answer this pick-up." During their conversation, the pager in Kate's pocket had beeped to give her details of her first dead body to collect. She briskly left the room without a backwards glance in Tru's direction. Running a shaky hand through her hair, Tru stood up and made her way out into the main area of the morgue to wait for the next body coming in. It felt so alienating to work alone with a person who was being so hostile towards her, but barely knew her. Davis had taken the night-off to go on a date with Dr Carrie Allen, the psychiatrist he had spoken to three weeks ago. Since their initial coffee meeting, things seemed to be going well between the pair and Tru had taken great delight in giving her good friend advice on wooing this woman he seemed to be crazy about. After learning about his past regarding the tragic death of his wife, Tru could not help but smile at the thought he was finally starting to open his heart to someone again. She was abruptly shaken out of her thoughts by Kate wheeling in a new body on a trolley.

"What's the detail on this one, Kate?" Tru asked, leaning over to look into the victim's eyes. The body was of a young man, roughly in his teens, with a Mohican haircut and pierced right nostril. She checked the wallet which had been brought in with him for details as well as vaguely hearing the statistics being called out to her by the other brunette.

"His name's Josh Logan, lived on west side of town near South Compton High School. He's about fifteen years old, his body was found in a deserted building with that rope tied around his neck and his body dangling from a light bulb fixture. He'd been cut down by the time I'd got there, so all I had to do was bag the body and bring it back here," although she tried to remain detached while feeding this information to her senior colleague, Kate could not quite keep the strain from her voice at seeing a young life taken so foolishly before his time. Trying not to take notice of her discomfort due to the tension between them, Tru continued reviewing the documents which had been brought in.

"Help…."

"Did you need something, Kate?" Tru had barely heard the whisper and, although she had a strong suspicion where it had come from, she knew it could easily have been her new workmate.

"No, I'm fine, thanks," Kate responded bluntly before going to get a cup of coffee. Then, as suddenly as she'd stepped out the room, Tru felt a hand cover hers suddenly. The vacant eyes of the corpse lying on the slab looked right up into her deep brown ones as he uttered the words she had grown to dread.

"Save me….."


	2. Chapter 2

Jerking upright in bed, Tru turned swiftly to look at her bedside clock, which confirmed she had slept in again. She racked her brains for every bit of information she had been able to gather about the teenager, Josh Logan, before her day had restarted while she rushed out the door to her class. She knew that he lived close to South Compton High School, the wallet that she had examined also confirmed he was a huge fan of heavy metal music, particularly bands like Van Halen and Pearl Jam. There was not a lot of information regarding Josh's death, she had no way of knowing what time he had died at or how to stop him from committing suicide a second time. As well as these obstacles, she also knew that she had Jack to contend with as well as her shift at the morgue with Kate. The call Kate had received for the pick-up had been very late and Tru also knew that Kate had shown more affection towards Jack than her in the past, which could potentially make Kate a hindrance if Jack could persuade her to get in Tru's way. Heart pounding at the mammoth task she was facing, she pulled out her mobile and hit the speed dial for Davis.

"Morning Tru, is this another one of your days?" Davis's voice was surprisingly alert for the time in the morning which he was being called at.

"Yeah Davis, this is a real tricky one as well. Got a young guy called Josh Logan, roughly fifteen years old, goes to South Compton High School. It looked like a hanging, with his neck covered in deep red marks and a rope tied around his neck," Tru relayed the information she had while rushing along the street after getting off the bus that dropped her close to the medical school she attended.

"Fine, sounds simple so far. What's the catch that has you so worked up?" Davis asked while scribbling down everything he was being given.

"I don't have a time of death for this guy, Kate took the page for pick-up and collected him. How can I save a person if I have no way of knowing roughly when he died? Plus, I've got my first shift working with Kate tonight. Needless to say, we didn't hit it off as friends the first time round. How can I explain to her why I have to rush off in the middle of a shift?" Tru's feet were dashing up the stone stairs outside the building by this point.

"Look, don't worry about that now. I'll check out Josh Logan's background as much as I can at this end. You concentrate on your class and call me after it's done for the day, I'll tell you anything I've been able to dig up," with these words, Davis hung up just as Tru was arriving for her class late for the second time. Her professor gave her a glaring look while she rushed to her seat.

"Hey Tru, rough weekend?" Avery asked politely. Unlike the day before, Tru did not make light-hearted humour of the situation with her friend.

"You have no idea," she muttered while getting her books out.

As she was coming out of her class after getting a lecture from her professor about time-keeping, Tru bumped into the person she hated more than anyone else in the world: Jack Harper. Ever since he had arranged for Luc to be killed instead of her brother Harrison, Tru had felt nothing but a deep penetrating hatred in her heart for the man. The swagger he adopted whenever in her presence coupled with the charming smirk only served to antagonise her further."Well, well, here's our little heroine now," his voice carried a tone which was mixed between mocking and complimenting, "only this time, you don't have any way of knowing the time that your victim died. So, I think you should just let this one slide, don't you?""Not really, I always did like a challenge, Jack" she responded in a barely civil tone, "thought you'd have figured that out by now. So, unless you're planning on depressing the hell outta me with dull conversation, I've got places to go and people to save." As she finished talking, Tru barged by Jack deliberately nudging him with her shoulder. Her pace picked up as she reached the main doors of the building while getting her mobile out to call Davis, her ears just catching the last words from Jack as she left:"I've got places to be and fate to preserve, Tru."


	3. Chapter 3

"Ok, while you were in your class, I was able to find our mohican friend on the database and can tell you what school he attends," Davis fed down the phone while pulling up the information on his PC. "That's great Davis, any information at this stage is appreciated," Tru replied numbly, "I saw Jack a short time ago, just as I was coming out of med school. What gets me is how he always seems to know about the victim's deaths and whereabouts very quickly. Then, he comes along to rub it all in my face. I'm also worried that Kate could potentially be an enemy to us. I remember when my day restarted and she was the one I had to save, she took a very strong liking to Jack and an even stronger dislike to me.""We can get through this, Tru," Davis responded in his most reassuring tone, "anyway, didn't Kate at the very least thank you after you rescued her from the heart of the White Squall that day? It wasn't just her life on the line, you were also incredibly lucky to make it out of that storm in one piece." "Not really, she was too frozen with shock to really acknowledge anything by the time I got there," Tru replied, while looking through the kitchen drawers of her apartment before locating a small pocket knife, "I merely saw her off in an ambulance before I came back to the morgue, didn't really stay with her for a chat. On her first shift at the morgue working with me last night, she was quite hostile and confrontational towards me. Nothing really bad, just wanting to know how I knew all that I knew that day.""Perhaps what happened affected her deeper than you were aware," Davis suggested, "near-death experiences can affect different people in different ways. When tonight's shift rolls around, instead of trying to make small-talk with Kate, maybe try saying simply you were in the right place at the right time and not to question it. As for any involvement with Jack, you could approach that question from a neutral angle." Tru almost dropped the phone at this idea. Her whole frame started to shake with pent-up rage towards Jack."Are you crazy? Davis, there's no way I could talk about Jack in a neutral tone if my life depended on it!! He's the living incarnation of death; he killed Luc when it wasn't his time!!" Davis held the phone away from his ear so to save his eardrum from a heavy beating from Tru's booming voice."Just think about it, that's all I'm asking," Davis said simply once he was sure Tru had finished her tirade, "now, do you have a pen and paper for me to give you the address of Josh's high school?" While Davis was talking to her, after locating the pocket knife, Tru also managed to find a pen and pad of paper."Ready when you are, D."

Across town in a large office building, Jack burst through a large oak door to meet with a significantly older man sitting behind a broad desk. This gentleman did not necessarily look his age, with the majority of his hair being black with only small traces of grey appearing at his temples.

"What information were you able to get for me, Richard?" Jack asked curtly while making himself comfortable on a large leather chair.

"I take it my daughter wasn't very responsive to your suggestion that she turn a blind eye to this corpse," Richard Davies commented dryly, taking in the small indications from Jack's appearance that Tru's stubborn attitude when he visited her at the medical college irritated him immensely.

"You could say that, which makes me even more determined to stop her," Jack's reply was said through clenched teeth. There had never been another person before in his life with as much resilience and determination to fulfil what they saw as their calling as the gorgeous brunette he was now sworn rivals with.

"All in good time, Jack. Before you realise it, an opportunity will present itself where you can gain a significant advantage against Tru. Until then, you'll just have to utilise the resources you have at your disposal to try and outsmart her," as he spoke, Richard gestured to his laptop for Jack to walk to the other side of the desk to look at it.

"Other than hiring a hitman to kill her, I really can't see how I would be able to outsmart your daughter," Jack said airily as he looked the data on the laptop over, "but I don't have the connections like you to arrange something like that without the police finding a paper trail coming back to me. Plus, I don't believe needless deaths should happen. Unless Tru dies and comes back again by asking for help, I've got no intentions of getting a murder on my conscience." A smile slowly crept onto his face as Jack let the information he was processing sink in. There might just be a way for him to foil Tru's plans after all.

Across town, Tru was rushing to a small café to meet up with her brother, Harrison. Not much taller than his sister with scruffy brown hair tinted with blonde highlights, the youngest member of Tru's close siblings had broken many a girl's heart as well as turning a few feminine heads his direction.

"Hey sis, what can I do for you on this fine rewind day?" Tru couldn't help but roll her eyes at her brother's cheesy greeting.

"Right, Harrison, I need you to come with me to West Yale High School this afternoon. I'm looking for a young guy who goes there called Josh Logan, I know how easily you can convince people over to your way of thinking. We basically need to know if this guy's into anything dark or secretive, whether there could be anything that would make him want to kill himself." As she drank her coffee, she let this request register with her brother. With his arms raised so his elbows were resting against the table and his hands clasped so his fingers were joined just below his chin, Harrison appeared to be giving his sister's plea much consideration.

"Ooh, I dunno, sis," he replied hesitantly, "my schedule for today might be a little bit hectic. I'll have to see if I can squeeze an opportunity to try and save someone's life in between job-hunting and poker game with the guys." As he finished talking, Harrison got a cheeky boyish smile that let his sister know he was only kidding around with her. In retaliation, Tru reached over and gave him a smack on the shoulder.

"You're too funny, Har," she growled with a mock glare, "I was also wondering if you could maybe find out information on Kate Wilson for me at some point today after we've been to check in with Josh. You remember me telling you about Kate, don't you?" Harrison couldn't keep the lustful look from creeping into his eyes as he recalled the day Tru showed him a photo of the girl she'd saved almost a month ago and who was going to be working alongside her.

"Lemme guess, your first shift with the life-saving beauty didn't go down too well last night?" he asked while clearing his mind of libidinous thoughts. Tru couldn't help but smile ruefully at that question.

"You could say that. Basically, I just wanna know what she's been up to since the night I saved her. It might help me get a better read on her so I know how best to break the ice with her tonight," this was the last exchange between the two of them before they went back to finishing their lunches, mentally contemplating the task ahead of them.


End file.
